VietNamNet Bridge - A central idea behind Open Minds Network is that the differences that divide people will diminish when they share positive ideas and experiences. Their relationship - former foes becoming friends, is a model for the world, and the kind of change that Open Minds Network seeks to promote.

In a world where conflict, violence, ignorance, hatred, self-interest, and sorrow are visible reminders of one side of humanity, there is a need for uplifting places - places defined by noble ideas and aspirations. Open Minds Network will be such a place.

Mr Thomas Patterson at an online talk.
Open Minds Network will be a social network devoted to truth, knowledge, and openness—a network for people of good intentions.

Truth, knowledge, and ideals have the power to change people’s lives for the better. But they need to be nurtured and promoted, which is what Open Minds Network will seek to do. Open Minds Network will be a place where lofty and noble ideas can be shared; where people from different areas, regions, and countries can find common ground; where people can come together to help each other in caring ways.

A central idea behind Open Minds Network is that the differences that divide people will diminish when they share positive ideas and experiences. As a U.S. soldier in the American War, I did not imagine that the hostilities of that period would someday give way to reconciliation between the Vietnamese and the Americans. Yet the two people and their countries are cooperating on educational, cultural, and scientific exchanges, and the ties between them are continuing to deepen. Their relationship — former foes becoming friends — is a model for the world, and the kind of change that Open Minds Network seeks to promote.

Mr Thomas Patterson at a meeting with VNR500 businesses.
Reconciliation is a powerful path to peace and harmony. It does not require forgetting the past but it emphasizes the future. Those who dwell on past injustices are rarely able to escape them.

They seek retribution but this leads only to more conflict and disharmony. Reconciliation is not easy. It is difficult for individuals, groups, and countries to change how they think about past rivals. Yet as the experience of South Africa shows, reconciliation can work for the betterment of everyone involved. As the South African experience also shows, reconciliation is a long process.

The Vietnamese understand the difficulty but also the opportunity that reconciliation offers. Vietnamese of the north, south, and overseas are moving forward together at a pace unimaginable not that long ago. Yet their full reconciliation will require continuing effort and good will by all sides. It will require truthfulness, kindness, and understanding—the very things that Open Minds Network seeks to promote.

Thomas E. Patterson is Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press. His book, The Vanishing Voter, looks at the causes and consequences of electoral participation. His earlier book on the media’s political role, Out of Order, received the American Political Science Association’s Graber Award as the best book of the decade in political communication. His first book, The Unseeing Eye, was named by the American Association for Public Opinion Research as one of the 50 most influential books on public opinion in the past half century. He also is author of Mass Media Election and two general American government texts: The American Democracy and We the People. His articles have appeared in Political Communication, Journal of Communication, and other academic journals, as well as in the popular press. His research has been funded by the Ford, Markle, Smith-Richardson, Pew, Knight, Carnegie, and National Science foundations. Patterson received his PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1971.

 

Professor Thomas E. Patterson many times visited Vietnam and VietNamNet’s office. He once gave a lecture about the US press at the Hanoi University for Social Sciences and Humanity in 2009. He also had meetings with VNR 500 businesses (the 500 Vietnamese biggest enterprises) and talked to VietNamNet’s audience via an online roundtable.  

Reconciliation is not the only goal of the Open Minds Network. It will seek to break down barriers of all kinds. Some networks allow participants to be anonymous, which can lead them to say untrue and negative things. Open Minds Network will require members to identify themselves, to say truthful things, to act only in a kind manner. Open Minds Network will be a place of ideas where well-intentional individuals can share positive thoughts and aspirations.

Open Minds Network will provide its members a place where they can find the best of what civilization offers: the finest music, the most beautiful images, the most special and influential talks of international scholars and other high-profile people, the most educational games, the most reliable information, the most promising ideas. It will be a devoted to the highest human aspirations.

Open Minds Network will also be a place where its members can inform themselves about what’s happening in the world. But unlike sites that feature stories about mayhem, lust, depravity, and violence, Open Minds Network will emphasize stories that reveal human kindness, progress, cooperation, and good will. 

As president of Open Minds Foundation, I am honored to be able to work with my friend and Harvard colleague Nguyen Anh Tuan, the founder of VietNamNet, former Editor-in-Chief of VietNamNet, who will be editor-in-chief of Open Minds Network. And I am pleased to announce the plan to create Open Minds Network on September 9, the World. 

Loving and Reconciliation Day, which Mr. Tuan worked so hard to help establish. The two initiatives — Open Minds Network and World Loving and Reconciliation Day — have a common foundation, the betterment of the world we all share. 


Thomas E. Patterson

President, Open Minds Foundation

Professor, Harvard University